A wind power turbine blade is an elongated member comprising a metal structure embedded in a fiberglass shell. Currently used blades may be as long as 50 meters or 164 feet, and comprise, in succession, a connection, root, wing, and tip. The root of the blade has a substantially circular cross section that varies considerably along the blade axis, while the wing has a cross section in the form of a wing profile that varies considerably in shape and size along the blade axis.
Because of its shape and size, a wind power turbine blade is relatively difficult to pack and transport.
Accordingly, special packing has been devised for transporting, handling, and storing wind power turbine blades. For example, EP Patent Application No. 1,829,762 A1 relates to packing for transporting wind power turbine blades. Since a wind power turbine is normally equipped with three identical blades equally spaced about the hub rotation axis, the packing described in EP Patent Application No. 1,829,762 A1 is designed to house three blades, and substantially comprises a metal trellis structure that extends the full length of the blades and comprises three compartments, each for housing a respective blade.
However, the packing described in EP Patent Application No. 1,829,762 A1 has the drawback of being extremely heavy, bulky, and relatively expensive. Moreover, once the blades are delivered to the installation site, the packing must be returned to the manufacturing plant, the expense of which may be enormous, in view of the fact that blades are at times shipped to sites thousands of kilometers or miles from the manufacturing plant.
To reduce the size and weight of the packing, PCT Patent Application No. WO 2006/061806 A2 describes packing comprising small metal supporting structures placed only along given portions of the blades.
Additionally, U.S. Published Patent Application No. 2008/0107526 relates to packing for supporting one blade, and which comprises a metal container, and protective cushions between the metal container and the blade. The metal container comprises a universal joint, and serves to move the blade as it is assembled to the hub.
Though some of the these known types of packing are relatively small, they still only partly solve the problem of returning the packing, which still involves transporting relatively bulky metal structures at a relatively high cost.
Moreover, such known packing is difficult to apply to the blade/s, and must be applied with great care to avoid damaging the blades.